Advantages

Disadvantages

Crystal clear sound, light as a feather, so comfortable you hardly even know your wearing them, and designed better than any other headphone I've seen. And that’s not the end of it. SOUND REPRODUCTION Don't be put off by the Sennheiser HD570 'Symphony', I've never listened to classical music on these. However I do listen to a wide range of other types of music rock, heavy rock, have heard the occasional pop/rap song but I'm certainly no fan, and everything that comes through is a smooth a velvet and crystal clear. The sound range of these things for the technically minded enthusiast is 18-20000Hz, which basically means you can hear pretty much everything from a high pitched scream to a deep base explosion if you listen to that sort of thing. One of the features that add to the quality of the sound the most is the 'open backed'. This allows the sound waves to sort of move around and escape from the earpieces quickly so they don't effect the sound. Everything in the headphones is absolutely no expense spared; even the diaphragm is designed with damping to eliminate 'standing waves’, which could affect the sound quality. Some more technical blabble (yes that is a word, I just made it up), is as follows. The headphones have 'Super spatial', 'transparent' sound reproduction, and have extremely lightweight voice coils for fast transient response. The lightweight coils and transient response mean that the headphones can respond quickly to changes in the sound tone etc. DESIGN The whole design of the headphones is absolute perfection. In my eyes it is a perfect balance between looking modern and looking refined and functional. The headphones integrate Sennheiser's 'BioNetic' design. This basically means everything moves on the headphones via robust hinges to match the exact shape of your head. Also the ear pads and crossarm over your head are hugely over padded and this adds to sound quality and certainly to the overall comfort of the things. The BioNetic design means each ear of the headphones can be moved a good few degrees in all directions; this might be of interest to those interested in DJing as they can be used on eared. CABLE One thing you might think is a weakness of any corded headphone like this is the wire, it limits your range for the audio source, and they can be easily damaged. But Sennheiser has thought of this and has come up with a Kevlar (yes the same stuff bulletproof jackets are made of) reinforced 'single-sided' 'OFC' copper cable. Not only this but the cable is fully detachable at headphone and 'loose' end. The plugs are gold plated as you should expect from all high-end audio connection sockets and jack plugs. Gold if you don't know is probably the best conductor around which means you get a perfect connection between the headphone wire and you hi-fi or whatever your listening to. The wire is 3 metres in length, which is huge; it is limiting, but is a very small price to pay. WEIGHT The HD570s are very robust; feature packed, and are 100% quality yet Sennheiser have managed to keep the weight down to only 210g (without the cable). When you pick them up you almost think there's something missing. JACK PLUG The headphones come complete with both a 3.5mm plug attached to the cable and a solid well designed adapter for the larger 6.3mm plugs found on sound hi-fi systems. ACCESSORIES As if you could want for anything you can also buy a stereo volume control for the cable. This is only really any good if you don't have a remote control and I personally don't have one, and don't want one. PRICE And here's the big one; a set of these beauties will set you back a good £90. Yep, 90 quid for a pair of headphones. But having read the rest of this opinion you can make you own decision on whether you’re enthusiastic about music, or DVDs enough to spend that much. They're excellent for all types of music on CD, mini-disc etc., watching DVDs or listening to just about anything. DJs will like the BioNetic design, and you certainly won't be disappointed. When I bought them and listened to some of my favourite music I certainly found myself hearing things I'd never even knew were in the music before, they're small but it gives you an idea of the sound quality. For these reasons I've given the headphone full marks below for value for money despite the price and you will too if you take a listen. WHERE 2 BUY All good audio shops will stock Sennheiser, if they don't they're not a good audio shop. However only the absolute best stores are likely to have the top of the range models like the HD570 in stock, but they're sure to be able to order them in.